Qatar’s Wajdi Sinen in action during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
DOHA: Qatari handball players maintained their dominant run by defeating Japan 24-17 to storm into the semi-finals while beach volleyball team of Ahmed Janko and Cherif Samba booked a place in the quarter-finals to raise medal hopes at the Asian Games in Indonesia yesterday.
Qatari handball team took an early lead in yesterday’s final group match but Japan equalised on multiple occasions in the first half. However, the deadlock was broken at 10 and Qatar secured the lead at the half-fime whistle at 13-10.
In the second half, Al Annabi players tightened the grip by adding 11 more goals against Japan’s seven to break the opponents’ hearts by winning their fifth game in a row in Indonesia.
Anis Zouaui scored six goals while Bertrand Roine was on target on five occasions. Allaedine Berrached (3), Rafael Capote (3), Moustafa Heiba (4), Ahmad Madadi (2) and Abdulrazzaq Murad (1) also made valuable additions to the total score.
Yesterday’s win also secured the top spot for Qatar in Group 1. They had already made it to the semis. Japan, who were placed second in the points table, were badly in need of a win yesterday as the top two teams in each group were offered berths in the semi-finals.
But the loss against Qatar made little impact as Saudi Arabia and Iraq were involved in a rare 20-20 draw in the previous group match, and Japan sealed the remaining spot in the semi-finals.
Qatar will meet South Korea in the first semi-final on Monday while Japan will lock horns with Group 2 leaders Bahrain.
At the JSC Beach Volley Arena in Palembang, Jenko and Cherif defeated Kazakhstan’s Alexey Kuleshov and Alexandr Babichev 21-8, 21-19 to storm into the quarter-finals. The Qatari duo remain unbeaten so far in the beach volleyball competition and is one of the top favourites win a medal at the 2018 Games.
Jenko and Cherif will be up against Iranians Arash Vakili and Bahman Salemiinjehboroun in today’s semi-final.
Meanwhile, Qatari volleyball players also maintained their unbeaten streak with a resounding 3-0 win against Hong Kong yesterday.
The East Asian team was only able to put up a strong fight in the second set but Qatar, who are in stunning form after their recent win at the AVC Men’s Cup in Chinese Taipei, prevailed 25-16, 25-22, 25-18 at the end.
The win secured full points for Qatar who finished the preliminary round as the group leaders, having won all their three matches.
In the men’s 3x3 basketball preliminaries, Qatar beat Jordan 21-7 in their Pool C match in the morning session yesterday, before going down fighting to Japan 21-15 in the evening session.
Qatari female cagers did not have any luck yesterday as they lost both of their matches in the preliminary round against Vietnam (12-6) and Malaysia (18-7).
